[Edited notes: The Authority of the Holy Spirit Ro 5 by Adrain Rogers] "...There are two men.  One heads one kingdom.  One heads another kingdom.  One man is Adam, the first man who ever lived. The other man is Jesus.  One man is the head of one kingdom. The other man is the head of another kingdom. And both of them center in one man. That's the reason he uses the word "one" so many times.  Now here is the blessed part. He uses the word "much more" many times.  We lost much in Adam but we gain much more in Jesus.

What we received in one man Adam. Ro 5:19:

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous (Ro 5:18-19).

Who is that one man who disobeyed? His name was Adam.  Many were made sinners.  Who is that? Just write in your Bible "me"...So by the obedience of one, Jesus; many were made righteous. If you are saved you can put your name there, too. 

We've been made righteous.  In Adam we lost it. In Christ we got much more back than we ever lost in Adam.  We see what we lost in Adam and the legacy that we receive in the Lord Jesus and how the Holy Spirit of God makes that real in our hearts and in our lives.

What did we receive from Adam?  What is the legacy of Adam? 

You were born in Adam.  That's your nature.  You say, "Well, I didn't vote for Adam. I didn't have anything to do with Adam--of course you did! If Adam had died before he had any children, would you be here today?  We are linked to Adam in a very special way. So many of us have the idea that we are in the image of God. We I want to disabuse you of that idea.  You are not in the image of God. Adam was made in the image of God. You are in the image of Adam. The image of God was marred and defaced in Adam. The Bible says let us make God in our image and after our likeness and he made Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve sinned. And then the bible says that he brought forth a son in his likeness and in his image--in Adam's likeness and in Adam's image--and that likeness and that image is marred.

If you think today that we are in the image of God, then look around. You think God's in this shape? Look at everything--this is not in the image of God!  This is the image of Adam!

We've never seen a man as God intended us to be and will be one day when we are made in the likeness of the Lord Jesus as the Psalmist said I shall be satisfied when I awaken in thy likeness.

Suppose you'd never seen a railroad train in your life. And then let's suppose that there is a train that wrecks--twisted steel, smoke and steam--and there's mayhem everywhere. The cars are tumbled and you've never seen a train and I show you the train wreck--and I say there is a railroad train.  Have you seen a train?  Not exactly.  What you've seen in a train wreck.  All of creation has been wrecked.   Look in the mirror.  You are a wreck.  We are in the image of Adam. 

Let me show you what we lost in Adam in Romans chapter 5. Let me show you what Adam have to us. He gave us weakness rather than power.

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (Ro 5:6). 

Without Jesus, we are without strength. What did I get from Adam?  I got weakness in Adam.  I am without strength.

What else did I get from Adam?  I got ungodliness.

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (Ro 5:6). 

What did God make Adam to be? Godly. Like God. What did sin make him? Ungodly. Unlike God.

What else did we get in Adam? We got sinfulness rather than righteousness.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Ro 5:7-8).

In Adam, we are sinners.  Sin is transgression of the law.  You may not think that you are a sinner but you are.  Who would dare say that he is not a sinner?  1 Jn 1:10.  You're a sinner.  Have you told a lie? Have you ever taken anything that didn't belong to you?

A man is not a liar because he tells lies.  He tells lies because he is a liar.  A man is not a thief because he steals.  He steals because he's a thief.  Some aren't  very good liars and some aren't very good thieves but we're not talking about degree; we're talking about kind.

The bible says that we are sinners. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point is guilty of breaking all of it (Jas 2:10).  What did we gain from Adam?  We gain weakness from Adam.  What did we gain from Adam? We gained ungodliness from Adam. What did we gain from Adam? We gained sinfulness from Adam.

What else did we gain?  We gained wrath from Adam rather than approval.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him (Ro 5:9).

Do you know what we are when we are in Adam?  We are under the wrath of God.  

What did we receive from Adam?  We received weakness, ungodliness, sinfulness, wrath, warfare.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Ro 5:10).

If you are not a child of God, you are an enemy of God.  If you are in Adam, you are an enemy of God. Jesus said Matthew Chapter 12 v 30:

He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad (Mt 12:29-30).

Not to be for Christ is to be out and out against Jesus. If you are in another kingdom, then you are guilty of high treason against heaven's king. High treason is a capital crime.

What you are in Adam is an individual with a clinched fist in the face of God.

In Adam, we are in trouble.  In one man, we are in trouble.

If Adam hadn't have sinned, we would have anyway.  If you'd been put to the same test, you would have sinned. You've already sinned so don't worry about Adam's sin--you've got enough of your own to take care of.

Because we can be condemned by one man, we can also be saved by one man.  Thank God because by one man many were made sinners because v 19:

...by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous (Ro 5:19).

In Christ, one can be made righteous.

We gained more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam.  There's the much more of justification.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him (Ro 5:9).

Before Adam ever sinned, Adam was simply innocent. After we have been saved, we are much more than innocent.  We are justified.

There are three words you need to think of when you think of the cross:  justice, mercy and grace.  Justice is God giving us what we deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. Grace is giving us what we don't deserve--his righteousness.

At the cross when the Lord Jesus died for us, Jesus suffered the wrath of God for us.  Therefore, God's justice is satisfied because his wrath was poured out on his own, dear Son, Jesus, when he became our substitute. Then, because God's justice is satisfied, God's mercy is shown and you and I are forgiven of our sins because of the mercy of God we don't face that wrath. But then, more than that, God's grace says that we are not justified and he puts us back as though we had never sinned at all.  That's much more than Adam ever had before he sinned.  That is "much more".   That's the "much more" of justification.

There's the "much more" of reconciliation.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Ro 5:10).

Adam, when he sinned, ran off into the bushes and he hid. God came looking for Adam. Sin had separated God and man. It's not God that needed to be reconciled.  God didn't do anything wrong. We are the ones who are reconciled.  We are reconciled to God.  We gain much more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam.

There's the "much more" of regeneration.

But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many (Ro 5:15).

Look at the word abound.  Adam had life.  We have abundant life. That is the regeneration--when he comes back into us.  We are regenerated.  We are re-gened.  The genetic code of our spiritual life now is the genetic code of the Lord Jesus. We are partakers of the divine nature.  We are regenerated, re-gened, made like the Lord Jesus on the inside.  Adam never had that before he sinned.  That's the "much more" that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's the "much more" of our righteousness.

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Ro 5:17).

Adam was innocent but we are positively righteous.  What is the difference?  Adam could have sinned placed on his account. You can never have sinned placed on your account.

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Ro 4:5).

You're not saved by:  joining a church, keeping the Ten Commandments, by following the Golden Rule, by getting baptized, by giving your money or anything else.  Salvation is not a reward for the righteous.  It is a gift for the guilty.

When God sees you put your faith in Jesus, God writes down by your name "He is righteous."

Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works (Ro 4:6).

Impute means to put on your account.  God put righteousness on your account.  He just imputed it to you--you didn't earn it--you don't deserve it. But when you put your faith in the crucified Son of God, God imputed that to you. 

It gets better yet.  He takes every vile, terrible thing we've ever done and he forgives us.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven (Ro 4:7).

It gets better yet.

And whose sins are covered (Ro 4:7).

Not only does he forgive.  He forgets.  He covers, he buries in the depth of the deepest sea, in the grave of his forgetfulness, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Can it get any better?  Yes, it does.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” Ro 4:8.

He has imputed righteousness but it goes on to say he will not impute sin. He will never put sin on your account.

Sin was placed on Adam's account.  When we got saved, we got much more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam.

It is the "much more" of our righteousness and the much more of our reign.

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Ro 5:20-21).

We come into a new kingdom.  It is the kingdom of grace and it is much better than the kingdom that Adam had even before he sinned. Adam had an earthly dominion and he lost it--he blew it. But Jesus bought it back and it now becomes a kingdom of grace and we have gained much more in Jesus than we ever lost in Adam.

By one man, we got into one kingdom but by another man, the Lord Jesus we got out into the kingdom of love and light to reign in life.  We gain much more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam.

The Authority of the Holy Spirit Ro 5 by Adrian Rogers